What Is “Longevity”?
What Is “Longevity”?
I’ve been surprised—more than once—when someone hears the word longevity and says:
“Honestly, I don’t want to live longer.”
And I get it. Because when many of us picture “living longer,” we picture living longer… but sicker. More years, more appointments. More medications. Less freedom.
But that’s not what I mean by longevity.
Longevity isn’t just about adding years to your life. It’s about adding life to your years—so you can keep doing the things that make you feel like you.
I’m talking about being able to play tennis, ski, bike, travel, laugh, and stay clear and sharp well into your late 80s and beyond.
That’s the difference between lifespan and healthspan—and it changes everything.
Lifespan vs. Healthspan (the most important distinction)
Lifespan
Lifespan is simple: it’s the total number of years you’re alive.
Healthspan
Healthspan is the number of years you’re alive and well—years where you have strength, mobility, cognitive clarity, and independence.
The World Health Organization defines healthy ageing as developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age—things like being mobile, learning/deciding, building relationships, meeting basic needs, and contributing to society. World Health Organization+1
So if you want my definition in plain language:
Longevity = staying functional for as long as possible.
Not just living longer—living better, longer.
The real goal: MORE LIFE TO OUR LIVES
This is the part I wish more people knew.
The goal isn’t to stretch out the last decade of life and call it a win.
The goal is to minimize the gap between lifespan and healthspan.
Meaning: you stay capable and independent for most of your life… and the period of decline is shorter and later.
This concept is called compression of morbidity, originally proposed by Dr. James Fries in 1980. New England Journal of Medicine+1
(He even revisited the idea decades later as evidence evolved.) PMC
I sometimes call it avoiding the Tithonus error—the Greek myth where someone is granted eternal life but not eternal youth. Great lifespan, terrible healthspan.
We’re not doing that.
Why “living longer” got a bad reputation
Because modern life has shifted the main threats to our health.
Globally, noncommunicable diseases (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative conditions, etc.) account for the majority of deaths—and they tend to develop slowly over time. World Health Organization+1
So if someone has watched a parent or grandparent live longer but suffer for years, it makes total sense that they’d say, “No thanks.”
What they’re rejecting isn’t longevity.
They’re rejecting prolonged decline.
And that’s why healthspan matters more than ever.
Functional Medicine 1.0 APPROACH vs 2.0 APPROACH (my evolution)
Here’s how I think about it:
Functional Medicine 1.0 APPROACH
Often very data-driven (labs, gut, hormones, nutrients, detox, inflammation)
Often very protocol-heavy
Can be helpful… but for some people it becomes too much, too fast
And if the nervous system is already overloaded, even “good interventions” can backfire
Functional Medicine 2.0 APPROACH (the way I practice now)
It’s still science. Still data. Still precision.
But it’s capacity-first.
It prioritizes:
regulation and safety in the system (because capacity sets the ceiling)
personalization that fits real life (not perfection)
early action (not waiting for disease)
This overlaps with what many call precision medicine—a model that considers individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle when designing plans. PMC+1
That’s the sweet spot: science + context + sustainability.
My longevity framework (the one I’ll teach everything through)
I use four pillars because they match human biology and human behavior:
Regulate • Nourish • Move • Restore
Not because it’s trendy—because it’s how healthspan is built without burnout.
Regulate: nervous system capacity, stress physiology, sleep foundations and circadian rhythm
Nourish: personalized nutrition, metabolic health, bioactives, microbiome support
Move: strength, mobility, balance, cardio fitness—movement you’ll actually keep
Restore: recovery, injury prevention, rhythm, and “less push, more repair”
Longevity isn’t about doing everything.
It’s about doing the right things in the right order, for your biology.
Where genomics fits: I use functional genomics as decision support—not as destiny. It helps us personalize the Regulate, Nourish, Move, and Restore pieces so you’re not guessing or forcing someone else’s plan onto your body. Precision doesn’t mean complicated. It means relevant.
Closing: what I mean when I say “longevity”
Longevity isn’t “I want to live to 110 no matter what.”
It’s:
I want my body to keep up with my life.
I want to be strong. Clear. Steady. Independent.
I want my later years to feel like mine.
That’s the work. That’s the point.
And in the next post, we’ll get practical: the actual levers of longevity—and why I start with nervous system regulation first.
References
Fries JF. Aging, Natural Death, and the Compression of Morbidity. New England Journal of Medicine (1980). New England Journal of Medicine+1
Fries JF. Compression of Morbidity 1980–2011. (review, PubMed Central). PMC
World Health Organization. Healthy ageing and functional ability (Q&A / definition). World Health Organization+1
World Health Organization. Noncommunicable diseases (fact sheet; global burden). World Health Organization+1
National Research Council. Toward Precision Medicine (2011). NCBI+1
NIH/PMC (citing NIH definition). Precision medicine takes into account variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle. PMC